The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, January 9, 2009 - 3 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 9, 2009 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS WASHINGTON Obama tax plan finds opposition in Senate President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts ran into opposi- tion Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldn't do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the econ- omy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individ- ual tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan. They were especially critical of a proposed $3,000 tax credit for companies that hire or retrain workers. "If I'm a business person, it's unlikely if you give me a several- thousand-dollar credit that I'm going to hire people if I can't sell the products they're producing," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a member of the committee. "That to me is just misdirected," Conrad said. WASHINGTON Cheney: No one saw economic crisis coming Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that he sees no rea- son for President George W. Bush to pre-emptively pardon anyone at the CIA involved in harsh interro- gations of suspected terrorists. "I don't have any reason to believe that anybody in the agency did anything illegal," he said. In an interview with The Asso- ciated Press, Cheney also said that Bush has no need to apologize for not foreseeing the economic crisis. "I don't think he needs to apol- ogize. I think what he needed to do is take bold, aggressive action and he has," Cheney said. "I don't think anybody saw it coming," he said. During a wide-ranging inter- view lasting about 25 minutes, Cheney also said Iran remains at the top of the list of foreign policy challenges that President- elect Barack Obama will face. He said an "irresponsible with- drawal" from Iraq now would be ill-advised. CHICAGO Blagojevich office says impeach vote was 'not a surprise' Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office has blasted the impeachment pro- ceedings as "flawed" and "biased." The Democratic governor's office calls Thursday's unanimous House impeachment panel vote "not a surprise." It also predicts he'll be impeached by the full House, saying the outcome will be different "when the case moves to the Senate." The House could vote on the panel's recommendation .Fri- day and then send it to the Sen- ate, where a trial would be held to decide if Blagojevich will be removed from office. r Blagojevich was arrested last month on federal corruption charges that included trying to sell off President-elect Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. OAKLAND, Calif. Fatal Calif. train station shooting sparks anger Protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer turned violent Wednesday night, with windows broken, streets shut down and train stations closed. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Oakland to condemn the shooting and call for criminal charges against 27-year-old officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle resigned from the transit agency shortly before he was supposed to be interviewed by investigators Wednesday. Mehserle is accused of shoot- ing 22-year-old Oscar Grant of Hayward, who was lying face- down on the station platform when he was shot and killed early New Year's Day. Mehserle was one of several officers responding to reports about groups of men fighting on a train. - Compiled from Daily wire reports U.N. Security Council calls for Gaza cease-fire JAMIE FRANCIS/AF Tom Derking, a Tillamook, Ore. resident tosses a stick for a dog named Jake, Thursday in Tillamook, Ore. Derkint says this is she third flsedIC keep him tram work inece Novemher Northwest floodingY closes roads, stalls co-mmerce No serious injuries after heavy rains, avalanches CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) - Floods, mudslides and avalanches in the Pacific Northwest kept tens of thousands of people from their homes Thursday, brought freight trains to a standstill and stranded hundreds of trucks alongthe major highways that link Seattle's busy ports with markets around the country. The flooding - some of the worst on record in Washington state - was touched off by a com- bination of heavy rain of 6 inches or more and a warm spell in the mid-40s that rapidly melted the snow in the Cascade Range. A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5, the state's major north-south free- way, was shut down between Olym- pia and the Oregon line, with one section area under 3 feet of water. Avalanches closed I-90, which cuts east from Seattle through the Cas- cades, along with the two other routes through the mountains. Amtrak service and most freight trains were stopped as well. Hundreds of truckers pulled their rigs off onto the shoulders or packed truck stops as the bad weather bottled up nearly all freight in and around Seattle, cost- ing the economy untold millions of dollars of day. . "You can't go north, you can't go east, you can't go south. What are my options?" said Jon Amer- man, a trucker from White Hall, Mont., who had planned to head east to Yakima to pick up apples after delivering a load of goods to Seattle. Instead, he pulled over to the side, and figured his company was losing more than $1,000 a day every day that he was idle. More than 30,000 people in western Washington were urged to evacuate their homes on Wednesday in low-lying areas from Bellingham near the Cana- dian border to the Kelso area near the Oregon line as rivers spilled over their banks and flooded some neighborhoods. The stricken areas included such far-flung Seattle bedroom com- munities as Fife, Orting and Sno- homish, but Seattle itself saw little flooding. Rescuers used boats to evacu- ate scores of people from nursing homes. Fire trucks rolled through the streets, using loudspeakers to warn people to leave. No serious injuries were reported. "I think we're seeing an all-tim- er, or as bad as anyone has seen," said Rob Harper, a spokesman for the state Division of Emergency Management. "We just haven't seen this extent of flooding." Many rivers were still rising Thursday, though others began dropping as the heavy rain sub- sided and snowmelt lessened with falling temperatures. State officials said the danger of avalanches would keep I-90 closed at Snoqualmie Pass at least until Friday, and I-5 would probably still be flooded over the weekend. Crews struggled to reopen high- ways, especially those leading to communities cut off by the flooding and avalanches. In Orting, a town near Mount Rainier, Jamie Hicks used five pumps to try to clear the 21/2 feet of water from his house, about 50 yards from the swollen Puyallup River. "We're veterans at this," Hicks said as his son rowed a boat in front of the house. "You just pump it out." In Snohomish, about 30 miles north of Seattle, a crowd watched as Robert Bishop and his room- mates were rescued by boat from their two-story duplex. The home close to the Pilchuck River was nearly half underwater. "I thought it was fine, but it went higherthan Ithought," said Bishop, 48, who waited out previous floods. "It was very scary." U.S. abstains from 14-0 vote UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Thursday night call- ing for an immediate and durable cease-fire between Hamas mili- tants and Israeli forces in Gaza. The U.S. abstained from the 14-0 vote. Israel and Hamas were not par- ties to the vote and it will now be up to them to stop the fight, ing. But the text of the resolution was hammered out by the United States, Israel's chief ally, and by Arab nations that have ties to. Hamas and the Palestinians inthe Israeli-occupied territories. "We are all very conscious that peace is made on the ground while resolutions are written in the Unit- ed Nations," British Foreign Secre- tary David Miliband said. U.S. Secretary of State Condo- leezza Rice said the United States "fully supports" the resolution but abstained because it "thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation" with Israel and Hamas, aimed at achieving a cease-fire. The Egyptian and French ini- tiative must be "not just applaud- ed, but supported," she said. In deciding that the U.S. should not block the resolution, Rice said, "the Security Council has pro- vided a road map for a sustainable, durable peace in Gaza." The decision came on the 13th day of an Israeli air and ground offensive against the Islamic group Hamas which rules Gaza and has been launching rockets and mortars into southern Israel for years. It followed three days of intense negotiations between ministers from key Arab nations and the council's veto-wielding Western powers - the U.S., Brit- ain and France. With Palestinian civilian casu- alties mounting, the Arabs were under intense pressure to get a resolution - and several diplo- mats said they wanted it before Friday prayers at mosques in the region. As of Thursday, about 750 Pal- estinians, at least a quarter civil- ians, had been killed along with 13 Israelis. Theresolutionexpressed"grave concern" at the escalatingviolence and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and emphasized the need to open all border crossings and achieve a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Arab nations called for the emergency Security Council meeting to get the council to call for an immediate cease-fire. They had been pressing their own resolution, which not only would have demanded an end to all military activity in Gaza but was revised to include mention of Hamas by name and call for an international force to prevent arms smuggling - two key U.S. demands. But the changes in the Arab text didn't meet all the demands of the United States and its key Western allies, Britain and France, all veto-wielding mem- bers of the council. Those nations countered by shelving a weaker "presidential statement" they had proposed Wednesday and introducing a rival resolution written by the British. The resolution "stresses the urgency of and calls for an imme- diate, durable and fully respect- ed cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." While the "call" is tanta- mount to a demand on the parties, Israel's troops won't be required to pull out until there is a "dura- ble" cease-fire. The resolution calls on U.N. member states "to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable cease-fire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammuni- tion and to ensure the sustained re-opening" of border crossings. This is a weaker statement than Israel sought, and the U.S. would have liked. There is also no men- tion in the resolution of an "inter- national observer force" proposed by the Arabs - and the word "Hamas" was dropped during the negotiations. I I I WANT TO WORK FOR THE DAILY COME TO A MASS MEETING. Instant Scheduling Entries Due Mon. January 12th 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM IM Sports Building Come Early to get the best available days and times! Multi Sport Managers' Meeting Tues. January 13th 6:00 PM IM Sports Building Individual Managers' Meeting Wed. January 14th IM Sports Building 6:00 PM Basketball S. 7:00 PM Mini Soccer (Men/Women) 8:00 PM I.T. Water Polo (CoRec) 9:00 PM All Sports (Rules will be covered for all 3 sports in this meeting, for teams playing multiple sports) 0 IM Offici Conta. REC at INTAMU 'L..onmgr SPURTS for m IN T RAMUR AL S READER KNOWS BST Vote for the Best of Ann Arbor before January 23 on our web site. michigandaily.com/aabest fficial Clinics Get paid to be an a! for Rec Sports! ct Nicole Green 734.764.0515 or een@umich.edu nore information